Individual Rod Holder Opinions

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

New question, I have been doing a little research on the Driftmaster and Tite Lok single rod holder and wanted to know your thoughts, pros and cons for both. My questions for the Tite Lok users is if mounting the holder's on the track they provide causes any movement from other rods when you get a big hit.

Thanks again for the input.

[warbird]

ben looking at tite lock pro series widow maker myself. dont think there is a track [4 1\2" track for each holder]so movement is gone. wish i could find vedeo or look at one

[Jigging15]

I have been running the Tite-Lok's for over two years and love them. On my last boat I used the short track's that came with the holders. On my new boat I went with the 18" track for each side just to eliminate drilling so many holes. It will not effect the other rods by having all four on a side in the same track. If you do any pulling of crankbait's I do not think they will work unless you really have them cranked down tight. I love being able to just push them forward or pull back on them to adjust the height of the tip off the water. So easy to adjust. Another great thing is when raising or lowering the trolling motor. Just push a couple of them down to the floor and the trolling motor comes right up and lays down above them. With most others you have to loosen them up and turn them or completely take them off to do this. So it makes it much faster when moving from spot to spot. I will try to post some pics of them.

[Jigging15]

Pics of individual mounts on my Champion.


Pics on my Ranger in the 18" tracks

[warbird]

will they tighten down enough for them sippi crappie? how many bolts are in the 18" track and where did you get them? is grizzly jig the cheapest, thanks for pic

[labsnslabs]

I have the drift master crappie stalkers and I am not impressed. They come with wingnuts so you can hand tighten or loosen to adjust, but with 16' rods you have to have tools to get them tight enough not to move and then sometimes they still move. And if a big enough wind hits it will throw all of the poles in one direction which can be a mess. So I would not recommend drift master.

[Jigging15]

Warbird I have used them the last couple national championships at Grenada and at Washington and Lee this year with no issues. Biggest fish was a 2.66 at Grenada. But we had on some 30-40 lb gar on lake Lee that would run away from the boat with the bait. A few of them if running to the left or right from the boat would move them a little. If they ran away to the front of the boat they would not move. I really don't even have them tightened down to tight. It seems that the rods take most of the "shock" out of the bite. Even them big black crappie at lake Lee would not move them. I really like to keep the tips the same distance off the water to make it easier to see the bite so I really like the way these adjust by pushing or pulling them forward or backwords.

We need to get a Spider rigging" day together somewhere. Get everyone together that rigs or is thinking about getting into it. So many ways to setup the boats and even down to tying leaders and such. Would be cool to see every ones setups or even go out with different people to see what they like as far as rods, reels, seat bases, rod holders and different ways to tie minnow rigs and jig rigs. I am good for about any Sunday. Camp would be another good time to see what everyone is running.

[Speck]

Thats a great idea Jared!!!

[Jigging15]

Ya I have been through all kinds of holders, rods, seat bases, reels etc etc and have found what works best for me and the way I do it. But always looking for something new to try. Also the way I do it and have my boat setup may not work for others. But always good to give people ideas of different things to try.

[Brian Stucker]

I've had both and I really like the tite lok single pole holder the best. They are easier to adjust. I had a set of driftmasters on my last boat and let them go with the boat. I bought a new to me 05 Ranger and ended up putting a set of Tite Loks on them. Here is a pic of the Driftmasters. And when I get a pic of the Ranger I will post it.